AUSTRALIA 2009 10 Traumatic Injury Fatalities 2009-10

WORK-RELATED TRAUMATIC
INJURY FATALITIES,
AUSTRALIA 200910
MARCH 2012
Safe Work Australia
WORK-RELATED TRAUMATIC
INJURY FATALITIES,
AUSTRALIA 200910
March 2012
Creative Commons
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Acknowledgement
Information on work-related deaths in this report has been compiled with assistance from
the National Coroners Information System (NCIS), maintained by the Victorian Institute of
Forensic Medicine (VIFM). The authors would like to thank VIFM for allowing access to the
data presented in this report. The authors, and not VIFM, are responsible for the way data
are presented in this report.
Disclaimer
The information provided in this document can only assist you in the most general way. This
document does not replace any statutory requirements under any relevant State and Territory
legislation. Safe Work Australia accepts no liability arising from the use of or reliance on the
material contained on this document, which is provided on the basis that Safe Work Australia
is not thereby engaged in rendering professional advice. Before relying on the material, users
should carefully make their own assessment as to its accuracy, currency, completeness
and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice
relevant to their particular circumstances. To the extent that the material in this document
includes views or recommendations of third parties, such views or recommendations do not
necessarily reflect the views of Safe Work Australia nor do they indicate a commitment to a
particular course of action.
Foreword
The aim of this report is to determine the number of people killed each year due to
work-related activity. This includes fatalities resulting from an injury sustained in the
course of work activity (worker fatality), commuting to and from work (commuter
fatality), and as a result of someone elses work activity (bystander fatality).
Injury is defined as a condition coded to External Causes of morbidity and
mortality and Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external
causes in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related
Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM).
Within scope of this collection are all persons:
who were fatally injured, and
whose injuries resulted from work activity or exposures, and
whose injuries occurred in an incident that took place in Australia,
Australian territories or territorial waters.
They include all persons killed:
while working (including unpaid volunteers and family workers, persons
undertaking work experience and defence force personnel killed within
Australia, Australian territories or territorial waters) or travelling for work
(Worker fatalities)
travelling to or from work (Commuting fatalities), or
as a result of someone elses work activity (Bystander fatalities).
The collection specifically excludes those who die:
of iatrogenic injuries those where the worker died due to medical
intervention
due to natural causes such as heart attacks and strokes, except where a
work-related injury was the direct cause of the heart attack or stroke
as a result of diseases, such as cancers
while working overseas (defence personnel and civilians), or
by self-inflicted injuries (suicide).
Sources of information
Because there is no single national data collection system that identifies all
work-related injury fatalities, the exact number of people who die in any year as
a result of work-related injuries in Australia is difficult to establish. To achieve the
best estimate, Safe Work Australia examines a number of datasets that contain
information on work-related fatalities.
The National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics (NDS) includes
work-related deaths for which liability for compensation has been accepted.
Compensation is generally only available to employees and hence this
dataset does not include deaths of self-employed workers. The NDS includes
compensated commuting-related fatalities, but these fatalities are not
compensable in all jurisdictions and hence coverage is incomplete. In addition,
workers compensation is not available to people who die as a result of another
persons work activity (bystanders), so these deaths are not included in the NDS.
iii
The Notified Fatalities Collection (NFC) includes notifications of fatalities in
accordance with the work health and safety legislation in each jurisdiction and
generally excludes incidents occurring on public roads. Jurisdictions also do not
generally notify commuter fatalities and notification of bystander deaths is not
comprehensive.
The National Coroners Information System (NCIS) contains all deaths notified
to any Australian coroner. Although all fatalities from work-related injuries are
likely to be notifiable, they are not uniformly coded as work-related, particularly
for commuting and bystander deaths or deaths of workers involved in vehicle
incidents. Coding is not complete until the coroner closes the case. Open
cases within the NCIS are included where sufficient information is available to
determine a death as work-related.
Investigations of rail, marine and aviation incidents by the Australian Transport
Safety Bureau are also used as a source to identify work-related fatalities.
In addition to these datasets, media reports sometimes alert the project to deaths
not identified elsewhere. All such cases were matched with information in the
NCIS to determine work-relatedness.
For further details on these data sources, please see the Explanatory notes.
Methodology
All cases within scope as described were extracted from each dataset and
compared to identify and remove duplicate cases.
People who died of injuries as a result of someone elses work activity while
themselves at work or commuting are classified as a worker or commuter,
respectively, rather than as a bystander.
This publication covers fatalities that occurred over the period from 1 July 2003 to
30 June 2010. Changes may be evident from previous years reports due to the
availability of additional information as coroners finalise their reports.
iv
Contents
Foreword iii
Summary of findings vii
1 Total fatalities 1
2 Worker fatalities 3
2.1 Characteristics by sex 3
2.2 Characteristics by age group 4
2.3 Characteristics by Occupation 6
2.4 Characteristics by Industry 8
2.5 Involvement of vehicles 10
2.6 State/territory of death 11
2.7 Mechanism of incident 14
2.8 Working with trucks 16
2.9 Working on farms 19
3 Commuter fatalities 21
3.2 Characteristics by Occupation 22
3.3 Characteristics by Industry of employer 23
3.4 Type of vehicle involved 24
4 Bystander fatalities 25
4.2 Location of incident 25
4.3 Mechanism of incident 26
Explanatory Notes 27
Glossary 35
v
Summary of findings
In 200910, 337 people died in Australia from a work-related traumatic injury.
Of these, 216 (64%) were injured at work (Worker fatalities); 79 (23%) while
travelling to or from work (Commuter fatalities) and 42 (12%) as a bystander to
someone elses work activity (Bystander fatalities).
Worker fatalities
The 216 Worker fatalities in 200910 equates to a fatality rate of 1.9 deaths per
100000 workers. This is the lowest number of deaths and the lowest fatality rate
since the series began seven years ago with an average of 282 deaths being
recorded each year over the previous six years. Unfortunately indications are that
this lower rate will not continue with the number of deaths notified to work health
and safety authorities in the 201011 showing a 7% increase on 200910.
Over the seven years of the series, one-third of workers who were killed while
working were killed in a vehicle incident on a public road, another one-third were
killed in a vehicle incident at a workplace and the remaining one-third did not
involve a vehicle. Trucks were the vehicle most often involved with worker fatalities.
Sex and age

The majority (204 of the 216) of the workers killed in 200910 were male. Male
workers experienced a fatality rate of 3.4 deaths per 100000 male workers,
compared with 0.2deaths per 100 000 female workers.
Workers aged 65years and over experienced a fatality rate of 6.2 deaths per
100000 workers in 200910, more than three times the rate for all workers. This
is the lowest fatality rate recorded by this age group since the series began and
is due to a large increase in the number of workers in this age group combined
with considerably fewer deaths than in previous years. All age groups except for
the 5464 years group recorded falls in the number of deaths compared with the
previous year. Workers aged under 25 years experienced the lowest fatality rate
of all age groups, 0.9 deaths per 100000 workers, half the rate experienced in
the previous year.
Working with trucks

One-third of the workers who died in 200910 were working in or around a truck.
Two-thirds of these involved a crash, with single vehicle crashes accounting for
26 of the 70 truck-related deaths in 200910. A further 13 workers were killed
when two trucks collided. Over the seven years of the series, 567 workers have
been killed in truck-related incidents. Of these, 438 were truck drivers, 16 were
passengers in trucks, while 57 workers were in cars or utilities and 48 workers
were on foot when they came into contact with the truck or its cargo.
Working on farms
In 200910, 37 workers died (17% of all worker fatalities) while working on an
agricultural property with 25 of these deaths related to working with a vehicle.
Over the seven years of the series, 83 agricultural workers have died in incidents
involving a tractor, 39 have died in an aircraft incident and 26 in an incident
involving an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). No workers were killed in 200910 in an
incident involving an ATV, the first time in the series.
vii
Commuter fatalities
There were 79 Commuter fatalities identified in 200910: 16 women and 63
men died of injuries sustained on the journey to or from work. Limitations of
the available data mean commuting deaths identified in this report are a known
undercount. All deaths occurred in traffic incidents, including five pedestrians
struck by vehicles.
Bystander fatalities
In 200910, 16 of the 42 identified Bystander deaths were of women and girls
and 25 were of men and boys. Four in 10 of the Bystanders were fatally injured in
incidents involving working vehicles or mobile plant and machinery.
viii
1 Total fatalities
This study identified a total of 337 work-related traumatic injury fatalities in
Australia during 200910. This comprised 216 (64%) workers who were killed
while at work (Worker fatalities); 79 (23%) workers who were killed while
travelling to or from work (Commuter fatalities) and 42 (12%) people who were
killed as a bystander to someone elses work activity (Bystander fatalities). Just
over one-third (36% 77 deaths) of all work-related injury fatalities in 200910
were the result of a Traffic incident an incident occurring on a public road.
As Figure 1 shows, the number of Worker fatalities recorded a substantial fall
in 200910 from the 289 recorded in 200809 and the high of 300 in 200607.
While the number of Commuter fatalities also recorded a large fall, these numbers
are considered to be an undercount of the true number of workers killed while
on a journey to or from work. The 42 Bystander fatalities identified in 200910 is
the lowest number identified in the seven years of the series but should not be
interpreted as indicating a fall in these incidences due to the difficulty in capturing
information on bystanders.
Figure 1 Work-related injury fatalities: number of deaths by type of worker type by
year, Australia, 200304 to 200910
350
300
Number of fatalities
250
200
150
100
50
0
200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Worker 272 253 287 300 292 289 216
Commuter 99 110 127 107 100 126 79
Bystander 51 55 50 59 55 44 42
In 200910, seven times as many males were killed as females. This ratio is
greater than the five times recorded in most of the previous years of the series. In
200910, 296 males and 41 females died due to work activity.
Figure 2 Work-related injury fatalities: number of deaths by sex by year, Australia,
200304 to 200910
500
400
300
200
100
0
200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Male 357 360 395 392 382 387 296
Female 65 58 69 74 65 72 41
WORK-RELATED TRAUMATIC INJURY FATALITIES, AUSTRALIA 200910 ... 1

2 Worker fatalities
In 200910, 216 workers lost their lives due to injuries sustained while working
which is a substantial fall from the 289 recorded in 200809. Figure 3 shows that
this is the lowest number since the series began in 200304. The highest number
of 300 was recorded in 200607.
The large fall in the number of Worker fatalities is reflected in a large fall in the
fatality rate from 2.6 deaths per 100000 workers in 200809 to 1.9 in 200910.
This is the lowest rate since the series began. Unfortunately indications are that
this lower rate will not continue with the number of deaths notified to work health
and safety authorities in 201011 showing a 7% increase on 200910.
Figure 3 Worker fatalities: number of deaths, Australia, 200304 to 200910
400 4.0
Deaths per 100 000 workers

300 3.0
200 2.0
100 1.0
0 0.0
200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Number of worker fatalities 272 253 287 300 292 289 216
Fatality rate 2.8 2.6 2.8 2.9 2.7 2.6 1.9
2.1 Characteristics by sex

In 200910, 12 (6%) of the workers who died were women, the smallest number
in the seven years of this series. Similarly, the 204 deaths recorded among male
workers is the lowest in the series. Of the 12 female workers who died, 5were
killed in a Traffic incident. Since 200304, 125 female workers have died, 7% of
all Worker fatalities. Traffic incident was responsible for 40% of the deaths among
female workers compared with 33% for male workers.
Figure 4 shows that fatality rates by sex have fallen. In 200910, female workers
recorded 0.2deaths per 100000 female workers while male workers recorded
3.4 deaths per 100000 male workers, this is down from 0.4 and 4.5 respectively in
200809.
Figure 4 Worker fatalities: fatality rate by sex, Australia, 200304 to 200910
6.0
4.5
3.0
1.5
0.0
200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Males 4.8 4.4 4.9 4.9 4.6 4.5 3.4
Females 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.2

2.2 Characteristics by age group
Table 1 shows the distribution of Worker fatalities by age group and sex. Changes
in the number of deaths incurred by female workers should be viewed with
caution due to the small numbers involved. In 200910, 5 of the 12 (42%) female
workers who were killed while working were in the 5564 years age group. This
is unusual as across the seven years of the series just 17% of female Worker
fatalities were in this age group and points to the volatility inherent in such small
numbers. While 5 deaths in this age group were also recorded in 200607, there
were higher numbers in the younger age groups and hence the proportion for the
5564 years age group was smaller (24%).
Table 1 Worker fatalities: number by age group and sex, Australia, 200304 to
200910
Age group 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
(years)
Female workers
15-24 2 0 1 4 3 6 1
25-34 5 6 3 5 3 6 2
35-44 2 2 6 1 4 3 1
45-54 5 4 5 5 4 4 3
55-64 2 2 1 5 4 2 5
65 & over 0 1 1 1 4 1 0
Total Female 16 15 17 21 22 22 12
Male workers
Less than 15 1 0 1 1 0 0 0
15-24 21 27 26 24 29 29 17
25-34 49 45 63 44 33 50 32
35-44 56 47 54 75 61 48 35
45-54 51 52 50 56 64 57 51
55-64 45 45 52 49 53 51 50
65 & over 33 22 24 30 30 32 19
Total Male 256 238 270 279 270 267 204
For male workers, the pattern by age in 200910 was similar to other years with
the 4554 years age group recording the highest number of deaths, 51. There
was a slightly higher proportion of male workers in the 5564 years age group
who were killed at work compared with prior years (25% in 200910 compared
with 19% across all seven years) though the actual number of deaths, 50, was
similar. All age groups for male workers recorded falls from the previous year.
The greatest percentage fall from the previous year, 41%, was recorded by both
the youngest (1524 years) and oldest (65 years and over) age groups.
Figure 5 shows that the proportion of Worker fatalities by age group followed
a broadly similar pattern by sex with lower numbers of deaths in the youngest
and oldest age groups for both male and female workers. Over the seven years,
female workers had a greater proportion of deaths in the younger age groups
with 38% of female workers who died aged less than 35 compared with 28% for
male workers.
At the other end of the age range, male workers recorded a greater proportion of
deaths in the 55 years and over age group than female workers: 30% compared
with 23%.
4 ... SAFE WORK AUSTRALIA

Figure 5 Worker fatalities: proportion by age group and sex, Australia, 200304 to
200910 combined
25%
Female
Worker fatalities
Male
20%
15%
ge of W
10%
Percentage
5%
0%
15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 & over
Age group (years)
Figure 6 shows that Worker fatality rates by age have been fairly consistent over
the past five years and that they tend to increase slightly with age up until age
65 when the rate jumps considerably. The high rates for the 65 years & over age
group are due to the lower number of workers in this age group combined with
relatively high numbers of Worker fatalities. However in 200910, this age group
recorded half the rate of the previous year and the lowest rate for this age group
in the seven years since the series began. The fatality rate of 6.2 deaths per
100000 workers in the 65 years & over age group in 200910 is nearly seven
times that of the youngest age group which recorded 0.9.
All age groups recorded falls from the previous year except the 5564 years
age group which remained on 3.7 deaths per 100000 workers. The greatest
percentage fall was recorded by the 1524 years age group where the fatality
rate dropped from 1.8 deaths per 100000 workers in 200809 to 0.9 following a
halving of the number of workers in this age group who were killed from 35 down
to 18.
Figure 6 Worker fatalities: fatality rate by age group, Australia, 200506 to 200910
15
s per 100 000 workers
12
9
Deaths per 100
0
1524 2534 3544 4554 5564 65 & over
200506 1.5 2.9 2.5 2.4 4.4 12.4
200607 1.5 2.2 3.1 2.6 4.2 14.0
200708 1.7 1.5 2.6 2.9 4.2 13.4
200809 18
1.8 23
2.3 20
2.0 25
2.5 37
3.7 12 0
12.0
200910 0.9 1.4 1.4 2.2 3.7 6.2

2.3 Characteristics by Occupation
In 200910, 31% of the Worker fatalities (68 deaths) were workers employed
as Machinery operators & drivers. Labourers accounted for a further 17% of
Worker fatalities (37 deaths) followed by Technicians & trades workers with 16%
(34deaths). The lowest numbers were recorded by Sales workers and Clerical &
administrative workers, with 2 and 4 worker deaths respectively.
This pattern is similar to the pattern for all seven years (Figure 7) with the only
notable difference being that in 200910 Professionals accounted for 13%
of Worker fatalities whereas over the full seven years this occupation group
accounted for just 9%. There were 29 Professionals in 200910 who died due
to injuries incurred at work. This is the highest number in the series with the
previous highest, 27, recorded in 200708. The increase occurred mainly within
the Business, human resources and marketing professionals sub-group with
more accountants and financial workers killed in 200910 than in previous years.
Vehicle incident claimed more lives in 200910.
Figure 7 Worker fatalities: Proportion of deaths by occupation, Australia, 200304 to
200910 combined
Machinery operators & drivers
Labourers
Technicians & trades workers
Managers
Professionals
Community & personal service workers
Clerical & administrative workers
Sales workers
0% 10% 20% 30%

Percentage of working fatalities
Table 2 provides a breakdown on the number of fatalities in each occupation
group over time and the corresponding fatality rates. These data show that while
Machinery operators & drivers recorded the highest number of Worker fatalities
of all occupation groups in 200910, the 68 deaths is the smallest in the seven-
year series and considerably lower than the 113 deaths recorded by this group
in 200708. However, the fatality rate of 9.7 deaths per 100000 Machinery
operators & drivers in 200910 was still five times the overall rate.
Table 2 also shows that three occupation groups accounted for most of the fall in
the number of deaths from 200809 to 200910: Machinery operators & drivers
down 27, Labourers down 25 and Technicians & trades workers down 19.
Within the Machinery operators & drivers occupation group, Truck drivers recorded
19 fewer deaths in 200910 compared with the previous year and 32 less than
the peak of 73 deaths in 200708.
Within the Labourers occupation group, Farm, forestry & garden workers
accounted for the highest number of deaths. In 200910, deaths within this
group claimed 14 lives, down from 21 in the previous year. Deaths on agricultural
properties were also incurred by Farmers & farm managers with 23 deaths in
200910 just slightly above the series low of 20 recorded in the previous year.
The lower number of deaths of Farmers & farm managers is due to no deaths in

the past two years from being hit or bitten by animals and no deaths from being
trapped in machinery. For both Farm, forestry & garden workers and Farmers &
farm managers there has been a substantial reduction in the number of deaths in
vehicle accidents and in particular no deaths from incidents with all-terrain vehicles
(ATVs) in 200910.
Within the Technicians & trades workers occupation group, the Automotive &
engineering trades workers sector recorded 9 deaths in 200910. This is the
equal lowest number of deaths in the series after recording its highest number of
fatalities in 200809, 20 deaths.
These falls mean that the fatalities rates for Labourers and Technicians & trades
workers are now closer to the overall rate than at any other time in the series with
3.1 and 2.1 deaths per 100 000 workers in 200910 compared with 1.9 overall.
The Managers occupation group has recorded small falls over the past few years
with the 32 fatalities recorded in 200910 being the lowest in the seven-year time
series. Despite these improvements this occupation group recorded the third
highest fatality rate of 2.3 deaths per 100 000 workers in 200910.
Table 2 Worker fatalities: number and fatality rate by occupation, Australia, 200304 to
200910
Occupation 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Number of worker fatalities
Machinery operators & drivers 87 78 86 108 113 95 68
Truck drivers 59 49 49 72 73 60 41
Labourers 65 48 57 46 58 61 36
Farm, forestry & garden workers 27 22 17 17 23 21 14
Technicians & trades workers 36 39 45 59 39 52 33
Construction trades workers 10 7 8 26 9 15 10
Automotive & engineering trades workers 10 12 12 9 11 20 9
Managers 46 47 52 41 34 32 34
Farmers & farm managers 37 34 29 27 28 20 23
Professionals 22 18 26 24 27 21 29
Community & personal service workers 7 18 9 11 6 12 9
Clerical & administrative workers 1 3 5 5 6 8 4
Sales workers 8 2 7 5 9 8 3
Total all occupations* 272 253 287 300 292 289 216
Fatality rate (deaths per 100000 workers)
Machinery operators & drivers 13.7 12.0 13.2 15.5 15.6 13.2 9.7
Labourers 5.9 4.3 5.1 4.0 5.0 5.3 3.1
Technicians & trades workers 2.5 2.6 2.9 3.7 2.4 3.2 2.1
Managers 4.0 3.8 4.1 3.1 2.5 2.3 2.3
Professionals 1.2 0.9 1.3 1.2 1.2 0.9 1.2
Community & personal service workers 0.9 2.2 1.0 1.2 0.7 1.2 0.9
Clerical & administrative workers 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.2
Sales workers 0.8 0.2 0.7 0.5 0.9 0.8 0.3
All occupations* 2.8 2.6 2.8 2.9 2.7 2.7 1.9
* Includes fatalities where occupation was not stated.

2.4 Characteristics by Industry
In 200910, 24% (51 deaths) of the workers who died were employed in the
Transport, postal & warehousing industry, 19% (42 deaths) were employed in the
Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry and 18% (39 deaths) were employed in the
Construction industry. Together these three industries accounted for 61% of all
Worker fatalities in that year. Figure 8 shows that over the past seven years these
three industries have together accounted for 60% of all Worker fatalities.
Figure 8 Worker fatalities: number by industry of employer, Australia, 200304 to
200910 combined
Transport, postal & warehousing
Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Construction
Manufacturing
Public administration & safety
Administrative & support services
Mining
Wholesale trade
Retail trade
Other services
Electricity, gas, water and waste services
Rental, hiring & real estate services
Arts & recreation services
Professional, scientific & technical services
Education & training
Accommodation & food services
Health care & social assistance
Information media & telecommunications
Financial & insurance services
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Table 3 shows that the highest fatality ratesProportion of working fatalities

in 200910 were also in these three
industries. While the fatality rate in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry of
11.4deaths per 100000 workers is six times the overall fatality rate of 1.9, it is
the lowest recorded in the industry since the series began after the number of
deaths fell from 72 in 200809 to 42 in 200910. Similarly while the fatality rate in
the Transport, postal & warehousing industry of 8.8 is four times the overall rate,
it is the lowest recorded for this industry.
Road freight transport sector workers accounted for 38 of the 51 Worker fatalities
within the Transport, postal & warehousing industry in 200910. This number
of deaths equates to a fatality rate of 22.8 deaths per 100000 workers which is
twelve times the all industries rate and more than twice the rate for the Transport,
postal & warehousing industry as a whole.
The Agriculture sector accounted for 36 of 42 Worker fatalities within the
Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry in 200910 and recorded a fatality rate
of 11.1 deaths per 100000 workers, slightly below the rate for the industry as a
whole, 11.4. This is due to the other sectors of the industry which include forestry,
fishing and aquaculture recording much higher fatality rates.
The Health care & social assistance industry recorded 6 deaths in 200910, the
highest number recorded in the series and twice the previous year but due to the
high number of workers in this industry it recorded a relatively low fatality rate of
0.5 deaths per 100000 workers.
Because fatality rates are sensitive to the number employed in each industry,
they are liable to show volatility in those industries that employ the fewest

workers even when small variations in the number of deaths are recorded.
Therefore when viewing the fatality rates in Table 3 the actual number of deaths
should also be considered.
Table 3 Worker fatalities: number and fatality rate by industry of employer, Australia,
200304 to 200910
Industry of employer 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Number of deaths while working
Transport, postal & warehousing 67 51 59 76 79 67 51
Road Freight Transport 47 40 46 62 62 50 38
Agriculture, forestry & fishing 80 65 58 48 58 72 42
Agriculture 64 43 44 33 44 40 36
Construction 38 28 42 50 40 44 39
Manufacturing 17 23 23 30 27 24 24
Administrative & support services 6 10 12 12 11 9 9
Retail trade 5 6 9 13 10 5 8
Mining 5 8 15 11 9 12 6
Wholesale trade 14 10 7 8 11 8 6
Health care & social assistance 4 2 3 1 1 3 6
Public administration & safety 7 16 12 16 6 13 5
Rental, hiring & real estate services 3 3 7 3 10 4 5
Electricity, gas, water & waste services 7 7 9 4 4 4 3
Education & training 2 1 8 4 4 4 3
Arts & recreation services 3 8 3 5 6 2 2
Other services 6 7 7 8 3 10 2
Accommodation & food services 3 4 6 5 3 1 2
Financial & insurance services 0 0 1 0 0 5 1
Information media & telecommunications 1 0 1 1 2 0 1
Professional, scientific & technical services 4 4 5 5 8 2 0
All industries** 272 253 287 301 292 289 216
Fatality rate (deaths per 100 000 workers)
Transport, postal & warehousing 14.0 10.2 11.7 14.6 14.3 11.4 8.8
Road Freight Transport 29.7 29.4 32.2 40.9 38.1 28.4 22.8
Agriculture, forestry & fishing 21.8 18.2 16.7 13.7 16.5 20.1 11.4
Agriculture 20.2 14.0 14.6 10.8 14.6 12.6 11.1
Construction 4.9 3.4 4.8 5.3 4.1 4.5 3.9
Manufacturing 1.6 2.2 2.2 2.9 2.6 2.4 2.4
Administrative & support services 1.7 2.9 3.4 3.4 3.2 2.6 2.4
Retail trade 0.5 0.5 0.8 1.1 0.8 0.4 0.7
Mining 5.2 7.6 11.6 8.1 6.2 7.2 3.5
Wholesale trade 3.7 2.6 1.9 2.0 2.8 2.0 1.4
Health care & social assistance 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.5
Public administration & safety* 1.0 2.3 1.7 2.2 0.8 1.7 0.7
Rental, hiring & real estate services* 1.7 1.7 3.7 1.5 5.0 2.1 2.7
Electricity, gas, water & waste services* 7.7 7.3 8.5 3.8 3.5 3.0 2.3
Education & training* 0.3 0.1 1.1 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.4
Arts & recreation services* 2.0 4.9 1.7 2.8 3.1 1.0 1.0
Other services* 1.4 1.7 1.7 1.9 0.6 2.2 0.4
Accommodation & food services* 0.5 0.6 0.9 0.7 0.4 0.1 0.3
Financial & insurance services* 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.0 0.0 1.3 0.2
Information media & telecommunications* 0.5 0.0 0.4 0.4 0.9 0.0 0.5
Professional, scientific & technical services* 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.7 1.0 0.3 0.0
All industries* 2.8 2.6 2.8 2.9 2.7 2.7 1.9
* Fatality rates in industries where 5 or fewer deaths occurred in most years should be viewed with caution.
** Includes deaths where industry was not stated

2.5 Involvement of vehicles
Over the seven years of this series, one-third of Worker fatalities arose from
injuries sustained in a vehicle incident on a public road (Traffic incident), one-third
in other incidents involving a vehicle but not on a public road (Non-traffic vehicle
incident) and the remaining one-third did not involve a vehicle. Figure 9 shows
that at different points in time each of these categories have recorded the highest
number of fatalities and the lowest.
All three categories recorded falls from the previous year with Non-traffic vehicle
incident recording the greatest percentage fall (34%). All three categories also
recorded their lowest number of deaths since the series began though the 77
deaths in 200910 due to Traffic incident was only slightly smaller than the 79
recorded in 200304.
Figure 9 Worker fatalities: number by traffic incident status, Australia, 200304 to
200910
120
100
Number of deaths
80
60
Numb
40
20
0
200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Traffic incident 79 91 91 106 98 96 77
Non-traffic vehicle incident 106 80 90 81 108 103 68
No vehicle involved 87 82 106 113 86 90 71
In 200910, Vehicle incident deaths accounted for 73 of the 77 Traffic incident

deaths with the remaining 4 deaths due to Being hit by moving objects, 3 of which
involved a car and 1 a truck. Of the 73 deaths where the worker was in a vehicle
at the time of the incident, 40 were in a truck, 28 were in a car or other light
vehicle and 5 were in other types of vehicles. Just over half (56%) of the crashes
involved a single vehicle.
Trucks were also involved in a high number of Non-traffic vehicle incident
deaths. Of the 68 Worker fatalities in this group, 9 involved truck drivers and 9
were workers moving around a truck. Deaths involving aircraft claimed 15 lives,
tractors 8, construction and related vehicles 8, forklifts 4 and water transport 3.
Of the 68 Non-traffic vehicle incident deaths, 25 occurred at Agriculture, forestry
& fishing workplaces of which 8 involved aircraft crashes and 8 involved tractors.
There were 12 Non-traffic vehicle incident deaths which occurred at Transport,
postal & warehousing workplaces of which 4 involved workers in trucks, 2 were
hit by trucks and 3 were in aircraft. Construction workplaces were the location
of a further 11 deaths of which 3 were trucks drivers, 3 were driving other
construction vehicles such as dozers and excavators and 4 were workers on foot
who were hit by vehicles.

2.6 State/territory of death
The most populous states account for the largest number of Worker fatalities. In
200910, 61 workers were killed in New South Wales, 52 in Queensland and 46
in Victoria. Workers in these three states comprise 77% of Australias working
population and in 200910, accounted for 74% of the Worker fatalities. All six
states recorded falls from the previous year while the Northern Territory recorded
the same number as the previous year (8) and the Australian Capital Territory
recorded no deaths for the first time in the seven years of the series.
Table 4 shows the number of Worker fatalities for each state and territory split into
traffic and non-traffic incidents over the seven year period. Over the series the
proportion of Worker fatalities attributed to a traffic incident has remained fairly
constant at around 33%. South Australia has the lowest proportion of deaths due
to traffic incidents (19% over the seven years) with Victoria the highest (39%).
Queensland recorded 21 fewer Worker fatalities in 200910 compared with the
previous year and New South Wales recorded 20 fewer.
Table 4 Worker fatalities: number by traffic incident status and state/territory of
death, Australia, 200304 to 200910
State/territory of death 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Non-traffic incident
New South Wales 56 43 66 64 52 46 38
Victoria 32 34 30 41 36 34 31
Queensland 45 43 51 44 47 48 38
Western Australia 29 19 15 25 34 30 14
South Australia 16 9 18 9 11 19 9
Tasmania 7 8 8 9 8 7 3
Northern Territory 7 4 6 1 6 6 6
Australian Capital Territory 1 2 2 1 0 2 0
Australia 193 162 196 194 194 192 139
Traffic incident
New South Wales 31 33 33 30 28 35 23
Victoria 26 21 24 31 16 21 15
Queensland 8 18 23 26 31 25 14
South Australia 2 4 4 1 6 0 5
Tasmania 2 2 3 2 4 7 3
Australia 79 91 91 106 98 97 77
All Worker fatalities
New South Wales 87 76 99 94 80 81 61
Victoria 58 55 54 72 52 55 46
Queensland 53 61 74 70 78 73 52
South Australia 18 13 22 10 17 19 14
Tasmania 9 10 11 11 12 14 6
Australia 272 253 287 300 292 289 216

Figure 10 shows fatality rates among the states and territories for the period
from 200506 to 200910. These data show that Victoria, New South Wales and
South Australia all had 1.7 deaths per 100000 workers. The other three states
recorded similar rates with 2.3 deaths per 100000 workers in Queensland, 2.4
in Western Australia and 2.6 in Tasmania. The Northern Territory recorded 6.4
deaths per 100000 workers, the highest of all the states and territories. The
Northern Territory has recorded the highest fatality rate of all states and territories
in all the years of the series except 200607.
Figure 10 Worker fatalities: fatality rate by state/territory of death, Australia,
200506 to 200910
10
0
NT Tas WA Qld SA NSW Vic ACT
200506 6.6 4.9 1.7 3.6 2.9 3.0 2.2 1.0
200607 2.7 4.9 3.5 3.3 1.3 2.8 2.8 1.0
200708 8.5 5.2 3.7 3.5 2.2 2.3 1.9 0.5
200809 6.5 5.9 3.1 3.2 2.4 2.3 2.0 1.0
200910 6.4 2.6 2.4 2.3 1.7 1.7 1.7 0.0
Tasmanias fatality rate recorded the greatest percentage fall of all the states
and territories with its fatality rate more than halving between 200809 and
200910. Table 5 shows that over the seven years of the series, 45% of Worker
fatalities in Tasmania were of those employed in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing
industry. In 200910, Tasmania recorded 1 death in this industry which is a major
improvement from the 7 that occurred in 200809. Tasmania recorded a much
lower proportion of Worker fatalities in the Construction industry than the other
states and territories: 5% compared with 11% to 18%.
The Northern Territory has the second highest percentage of deaths (32%)
incurred by workers in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry. Offsetting this
is the lowest percentage in the Transport, postal & warehousing industry, 13%
compared with 26% in New South Wales.
Tasmania and the Northern Territory also recorded high percentages of Worker
fatalities in the Public administration & safety industry with 10% and 11%
respectively compared with 3% and 4% in other states.
Western Australia recorded the highest percentage of deaths in the Mining
industry with 11%, just ahead of South Australia with 10%. The other states
and territories recorded between 1% and 4%. In 200910, 3 mining workers in
Western Australia and 1 in South Australia lost their life in a work-related incident.
This is down from 6 and 2 respectively in 200809.
Fatalities by industry for the Australian Capital Territory are not shown in Table
5 as the 10 deaths in the seven year period do not show a reliable pattern for
analysis.

Table 5 Worker fatalities: number by state/territory of death and the industries with
the highest number of fatalities, Australia, 200304 to 200910 combined
New Queens- Western South Northern
Industry South Victoria land Australia Australia Tasmania Territory
Wales
Number of deaths while working
Construction 89 54 81 26 16 4 8
Manufacturing 56 47 27 24 8 5 1
Retail trade 27 14 8 6 1 0 0
Mining 7 5 15 25 11 1 2
Other industries 78 53 58 35 14 8 9
Total 578 392 461 229 113 73 53
Percentage
Transport, postal & warehousing 26% 24% 25% 19% 25% 18% 13%
Agriculture, forestry & fishing 18% 22% 23% 21% 24% 45% 32%
Construction 15% 14% 18% 11% 14% 5% 15%
Manufacturing 10% 12% 6% 10% 7% 7% 2%
Retail trade 5% 4% 2% 3% 1% 0% 0%
Wholesale trade 4% 4% 3% 2% 1% 1% 0%
Public administration & safety 4% 4% 3% 3% 3% 10% 11%
Administrative & support services 4% 2% 5% 4% 4% 1% 6%
Mining 1% 1% 3% 11% 10% 1% 4%
Other industries 13% 14% 13% 15% 12% 11% 17%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Figure 11 shows fatality rates for the four industries with the highest number of
deaths in the six states of Australia. These data show that of the four industries
shown, the greatest variability in fatality rates was in the Agriculture, forestry
& fishing industry with very high rates in Tasmania (29.7 deaths per 100000
workers) and relatively low rates in South Australia (9.6). In the Transport, postal
& warehousing industry similar fatality rates were recorded by most states with
higher rates in Tasmania.
Figure 11 Worker fatalities: fatality rate by selected industries and state of death,
Australia, 200304 to 200910 combined
30
NSW
Vic
20 Qld
WA
SA
10 Tas
0
Agriculture, forestry & Transport, postal & Construction Manufacturing
fishing warehousing

2.7 Mechanism of incident
The mechanism of incident identifies the overall action that best describes the
circumstances that resulted in the fatality. In 200910,100 workers (46%) died
following a Vehicle incident. Of these 100 collisions, 73 occurred on a public road
(Traffic incident) and 27 at a worksite. A further 24 workers (11%) were killed
in 200910 due to Falls from a height and 23 (11%) from Being hit by moving
objects. While still high, these numbers are lower than in previous years.
Figure 12 shows that across the seven years these three mechanisms accounted
for 46%, 12% and 11% of Worker fatalities respectively.
Figure 12 Worker fatalities: Proportion by mechanism of incident, Australia,
200304 to 200910 combined
Vehicle incident
Being hit by moving objects
Mechanism of incident
Falls from a height

Being hit by falling objects
Being trapped between stationary & moving objects
Contact with electricity
Being trapped by moving machinery or equipment
Drowning
Being assaulted by a person or persons
Other mechanisms
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Percentage of worker fatalities
Table 5 shows that the 100 workers killed in a Vehicle incident in 200910 is the
lowest in the series. Within this group the 73 deaths occurring on public roads
(Vehicle incident) was the second lowest in the series and only slightly higher than
the 72 recorded in 200304. These data also show that the 15 deaths in aircraft
crashes in 200910 is similar to other years while the 7 deaths from a Rollover of a
farm, mining or construction vehicle not on a public road is the lowest in the series
and equal to the number recorded in 200506 and 200607. This is the first year
that no deaths due to all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) have been recorded. The highest
number of ATV deaths in any one year, 6, occurred in 200708.
Of the 24 deaths from Falls from a height in 200910, 5 were from falling off
Buildings & other structures, 4 from Ladders and 3 from Scaffolding. Over the
seven years, 23% of deceased workers fell from Buildings & other structures, 16%
from Ladders, 8% from Horses, 7% from Trucks, semi-trailers & lorries and 6%
from Scaffolding. The Construction industry employed 29% (7) of the workers who
died from injuries sustained in falls in 200910 but across the seven years, this
industry has accounted for 37% of Worker fatalities due to Falls from a height.
Of the 23 deaths in 200910 which resulted from Being hit by moving objects, 15
(65%) involved being hit by a vehicle. Over the seven years of the series 62% (139
out of 223 deaths) involved being hit by a vehicle. Trucks were involved in 40% of
the incidents with cars or other light vehicles involved in 29% and tractors in 12%.
Some of the incidents involved more than one vehicle.
Being hit by moving objects also includes 3 workers who were killed by bullets with
2 of the 3 deaths being farmers who accidently shot themselves while attending to
animals on the their properties. Three deaths in 200910 is relatively high with 11
work-related shooting deaths over the seven years.

Table 5 Worker fatalities: number by mechanism of incident, Australia, 200304 to 200910
Mechanism of incident 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Vehicle incident 120 123 124 122 146 135 100
Traffic incident 72 86 80 98 94 87 73
Aircraft crash 20 15 22 5 15 20 15
Rollover 11 12 7 7 16 10 7
Falls from a height 24 25 32 38 28 33 24
Buildings & other structures 12 3 9 5 4 8 5
Ladders 1 3 5 6 8 6 4
Horses 2 4 2 5 2 1 1
Trucks, semi-trailers & lorries 1 3 2 3 1 3 1
Scaffolding 1 1 1 3 1 3 3
Being hit by moving objects 45 21 35 31 32 36 23
Hit by vehicle 22 12 23 19 25 23 15
Being hit by falling objects 16 26 22 26 24 22 18
Contact with electricity (electrocution) 11 18 19 15 9 9 13
Being trapped between stationary & moving
20 12 18 26 9 13 9
objects
Being trapped by moving machinery or
4 6 5 10 11 8 7
equipment
Drowning/ immersion 8 3 3 7 6 13 3
Being assaulted by a person or persons 10 6 8 8 2 4 2
All other mechanisms 14 13 21 17 25 16 17
Total 272 253 287 300 292 289 216
Being hit by falling objects claimed the lives of 18 workers in 200910. In 4 of

the cases workers were struck by falling trees and in 3 cases the falling objects
were glass and metal. Across the seven years, just over one-quarter (26%) of the
workers were employed in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry and around
one-fifth each were employed in the Construction (19%) and Manufacturing
(17%) industries.
After two years of relatively few deaths due to Contact with electricity there were
13 deaths in 200910. Across the seven years of the series, the Construction
industry accounted for 45% of the 94 deaths from electrocution. In 200910,
5 (38%) of the 13 deaths due to Contact with electricity occurred in the
Construction industry, 3 of which occurred while installing insulation in residential
properties. There were also 4 deaths in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry,
3 of which were due to moving equipment around the farm and contacting
overhead power lines.
Over the seven years, 107 workers were killed due to Being trapped between
stationary and moving objects. Over half of these incidents (56% - 60 deaths)
involved a vehicle including 25 that involved a truck and 8 that involved a tractor.
A further 26 workers (24%) were trapped by lifting equipment of which 7 involved
Forklift trucks, 7 Cranes while Power hoists and Conveyor belts and escalators
each caused the deaths of 5 workers. One in four of the deaths due to this
mechanism involved workers in the Transport, postal & warehousing industry and
one in five were employed in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry.
Vehicles were involved in 22 of the 51 deaths due to Being trapped by moving
machinery or equipment and lifting equipment was involved in the deaths of 11
workers. One-third of the workers were employed in the Manufacturing industry
with a further one-third in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry.

2.8 Working with trucks
In 200910, 70 workers died while working in or around a truck, 32% of all
Worker fatalities. Table 6 shows that a Traffic incident was the cause of 53 of
the deaths with 38 truck drivers and 2 passengers killed in crashes on a public
road. In addition, 10 car drivers were killed following a collision with a truck and 1
worker on foot was killed when hit by a truck.
There were also 17 workers killed in incidents that did not occur on a public road
of which 10 involved a truck driver and 7 pedestrian workers. Of the 7 pedestrian
workers, 3 were hit by a passing truck at a worksite and 3 were killed when hit by
items falling off a truck during unloading.
Of the 49 truck drivers who died in 200910, 23 died when their truck collided
with a tree or other stationary object, A further 13 died in collisions with another
truck and 3 in collisions with a car. There were also 2 truck drivers killed when hit
by objects falling off their truck during unloading and 2 who died after falling from
their truck.
Table 6 Fatalities due to working with trucks: number by traffic incident status and
mechanism of incident by relationship to vehicle, Australia, 200910
Traffic incident status and Truck Truck Worker on
passenger Car driver
Mechanism Total
driver foot
Traffic incident 39 2 11 1 53
Hit by moving vehicles 1 0 1 1 3
Vehicle incident 38 2 10 0 50
Not a traffic incident 10 0 0 7 17
Fall from a height 2 0 0 0 2
Hit by falling objects 2 0 0 3 5
Hit by moving objects 1 0 0 3 4
Other mechanism 3 0 0 1 4
Total 49 2 11 8 70
From 200304 to 200910, 567 workers have been killed in truck-related incidents.
These deaths include 438 truck drivers, 16 passengers in trucks, 57 workers in light
vehicles such as a car or utility and 48 workers on foot.
Table 7 shows that of the 438 truck drivers, 339 were killed while driving the
truck, 66 while unloading/loading, 18 while undertaking repair and maintenance
activities and 15 while undertaking other activities including having a rest break or
being temporarily out of the vehicle while opening a gate.
Of the 438 truck drivers who were killed, 300 (68%) died in single vehicle
crashes. Incidents involving two trucks resulted in 87 deaths (20%) of which half
(45) were due to the actions of the other truck. There were also 23 truck drivers
killed when their truck was involved in a collision with a car or other light vehicle
and 7 where the truck collided with a train.
Apart from truck drivers, over the seven years of the series there were 13 truck
passengers and 61 other workers killed in a Vehicle incident which involved a
truck.
For workers other than truck drivers or passengers, loading or unloading the truck
posed the greatest risk. In addition to the 66 truck drivers who died while the
truck was being loaded or unloaded, 21 other workers were killed due to assisting
with this activity or simply being in the vicinity at the time.

Of the 13 workers who were killed while undertaking repair or maintenance
activities all but 2 were repairing the truck at the time the incident occurred. The
2 non-truck repairers were hit on the side of the road by a truck while changing
a tyre on their vehicle. There were also 15 workers who were hit by a truck while
undertaking activities not specifically related to the truck, 6 of these involved road
traffic controllers.
Table 7 Fatalities due to working with trucks: number by mechanism of incident and activity
at time of incident, Australia, 200304 to 200910 combined
Loading/ Repair/ main- Other activity
Mechanism Driving Total
unloading tenance
Truck drivers 339 66 18 15 438
Being trapped between stationary 0 19 8 4 31
& moving objects
Fall from a height 0 13 2 0 15
Other and unknown 6 2 2 2 12
Truck passengers 13 0 0 3 16
Other workers 64 21 13 15 113
Being trapped between stationary 0 6 3 0 9
& moving objects
Total 416 87 31 33 567
While trucks are used in a variety of industries, 316 of the 567 deaths (56%) were
sustained by workers in the Transport, postal & warehousing industry. Figure 13
shows the industries with the highest number of Worker fatalities which involved
a truck and the type of vehicle the victim was in at the time of the incident. While
there were 299 fatalities in the Transport, postal & warehousing industry where
the victim was the truck driver, the scale on the graph has been restricted so
that greater detail can be seen in the other industries. These data show that
the Transport, postal & warehousing industry also had the highest number of
deaths(10) where the victim was in another type of vehicle: 7 were in a car, 2
were in a ute and 1 was riding a motorbike when they came into contact with a
truck. This industry also recorded the second highest number of workers on foot
(7) who were hit by a truck.
Within the Transport, postal & warehousing industry the Road freight transport
sector accounted for 33 of the 70 deaths (47%) in 200910 and 51% of the truck-
related fatalities over the seven years of the series.
The Construction industry recorded the second highest number of truck-
related deaths, 45, with 29 killed while driving a truck. This was followed by the
Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry with 41 workers killed in the seven years,
32 of them while driving a truck. The Construction industry also had the highest
number of workers on foot (9) who were killed when they came into contact with a
truck. Five of the 9 workers on foot were on road construction sites.

The Public administration & safety industry had as many truck drivers who were
killed as workers on foot, 7 each. Four of the workers on foot were involved in
road construction activities at the time of the incident.
There are three industries with 8 worker deaths where the workers were in
vehicles other than a truck when that vehicle was involved in a collision with a
truck: Construction, Manufacturing and Retail trade. In the Construction industry
5 of the victims were in cars, 1 on a motorbike and another on a ride-on lawn
mower. Within the Retail trade industry, 5 of the 8 workers killed were in the same
van which drove into the path of the truck. The other 3 victims were killed in
separate incidents when their cars collided with trucks. The 8 workers killed in the
Manufacturing industry included 5 separate incidents of car drivers driving into
the path of trucks.
Figure 13 Fatalities due to working with trucks: Number by victim vehicle type and
industry, Australia, 200304 to 200910 combined
Transport, postal & warehousing
Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Construction
Manufacturing
Wholesale trade
Electricity, gas, water and waste services
Administrative & support services
Mining Truck driver

Retail trade Other vehicle driver
Rental, hiring & real estate services Worker on foot
Public administration & safety
Other industries
0 10 20 30 40 50
Number of Worker fatalities that involved trucks
Figure 14 shows that 26% of the truck drivers who were killed over the seven
year period were in the 3544 years age group. This is higher than the 21% of
all Worker fatalities in this age group. The 4554 years age group accounted for
24% of the truck driver fatalities which was also higher than the 22% for all Worker
fatalities. The proportions for truck drivers were lower for the youngest and oldest
age groups.
Figure 14 Fatalities due to working with trucks: Proportion by age group, Australia,
30%
Truck drivers
Proportion of Working fatalities
All workers
20%
10%
0%
15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 & over
Age group (years)

2.9 Working on farms
In 200910, 37 workers died on farming properties, 17% of all Worker fatalities.
In addition, 4 agricultural workers were killed on public roads. Of the 37 farming
deaths, 31 usually worked on the property while 6 were hired temporarily to
undertake some work.
Of the 37 workers, 20 were Farmers & farm managers and 11 were Labourers.
Vehicles were involved in 25 of the incidents with tractors accounting for 8 deaths
and aircraft another 8.
Over the seven years of the series, worker deaths on farms accounted for 16% of
all Worker fatalities. Figure 15 shows that of the 310 workers who died on farms,
29% (90 deaths) were in the 65 years and over age group. This is nearly three
times higher than the proportion of all Worker fatalities of which 10% were in the
65 years and over age group. For the 5564 years age group similar proportions
were recorded for those working on farms and for all workers while for all younger
age groups the proportion of deaths occurring on farms was lower than for all
workers. These data show the greater risk of death in older workers on farms.
Figure 15 Worker fatalities on farms: Number by age group, Australia, 200304 to
200910 combined
30%
Farm workers
Number of Worker fatalities
All workers
20%
10%
0%
15-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65 & over
Age group (years)
Figure 16 shows that two-thirds of incidents on farms that resulted in a death

involved a vehicle. Over the seven years, 83 workers have died in incidents
involving a tractor, 39 in aircraft incidents and 26 in incidents with ATVs.
Figure 16 Worker fatalities on farms: Number by type of vehicle involved, Australia,
100
Number of Worker fatalities on farms
80
60
40
20
0
Tractor Aircraft ATV Truck Light Motorbike Other No vehicle
vehicle vehicle

Of the 83 workers who died while working with or around a tractor, 29 were
killed when the tractor rolled over after travelling on uneven ground or along
embankments. A further 20 were hit by their own tractor after they temporarily
alighted the vehicle. In many instances the tractor was not braked properly while
the worked jumped off to open a gate or move a hay bale. Other vehicle crash
incidents claimed 13 lives and being trapped or crushed by their tractor claimed
the lives of 11 additional workers. These incidents generally occurred while
undertaking loading activities or repairs to the vehicle.
The 39 deaths in aircraft crashes on farms represents one-third of all deaths
which were the result of aircraft crashes. Of the 39 workers killed while
working on farms, 18 were in helicopters and 21 were in planes. There were 9
Passengers killed in these incidents and 30 pilots. In 15 of the incidents crop
dusting activities were being undertaken and in a further 12 it was mustering.
Across all workplaces 30 workers have died in incidents involving quad bikes
or ATVs, of these 26 occurred on farms. Workers aged 55 years and over
comprised 17 of the deaths with 5 workers aged 1524 years being killed while
using an ATV. In 17 of the incidents the worker died due to the ATV rolling over
and pinning them underneath, the remaining 9 workers died when they were
thrown from the ATV while travelling over uneven ground. It is encouraging that
no workers were killed in 200910 while using an ATV.
Of the 87 deaths that did not involve a vehicle, 18 were due to Fall from height of
which 9 were from a horse. An additional 14 deaths involved Being hit by moving
object of which 6 involved accidental shootings and 13 involved Being hit by a
falling objects of which 5 involved trees or branches and 4 involved buildings.
There were also 11 workers who died after being hit or bitten by an animal and 8
workers who died from electrocution.

3 Commuter fatalities
In 200910, 79 workers died while travelling to or from work. This is the lowest
number recorded in the seven years of the series and may be partially due to the
difficulty in identifying workers who are commuting from other road fatalities, as
the purpose of the journey is generally not ascertained by investigating officers.
While the magnitude of the problem is unknown, the data are collected on a
consistent basis each year and hence the trend is considered reliable. Figure17
shows that the highest number of commuter fatalities, 127, was recorded in
200506 followed by 126 in 200809.
The 79 deaths recorded in 200910 represents 0.7commuter deaths per
100000 workers, which is the lowest rate in the seven years of the series and
nearly half the rate recorded in 200506 of 1.3.
Figure 17 Commuter fatalities: Number of fatalities and fatality rate, Australia,
200304 to 200910
150 1.5
Commuter fatalities

100 1.0
Number of Com
50 0.5
0 0.0
200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Number of fatalities 99 110 127 107 100 126 79
Fatality rate 1.0 1.1 1.3 1.0 0.9 1.2 0.7
In 200910, 16 female workers and 63 male workers died while commuting. Over
the seven years 24% of the commuter fatalities involved female workers. Figure18
shows that while the fatality rate for male workers in 200910 is the same as when
the series began, 1.3commuter deaths per 100 000 workers, it has been as high
as 1.9 in 200809. The fatality rate for female workers in 200910 of 0.3 commuter
deaths per 100 000 workers is the lowest in the seven years and half the rate of
200809.
Figure 18 Commuter fatalities: fatality rate by sex, Australia, 200304 to 200910
2.0
100 000 workers
1.5
1.0
Deathss per 10
0.5
05
0.0
200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Male 1.3 1.6 1.8 1.4 1.3 1.9 1.3
Female 0.7 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.3

Figure 19 shows that the number of workers killed while commuting decreased
with age for male workers but the pattern is not so clear for female workers. Over
the seven years of the series, 153 male workers and 53 female workers aged
less than 25 years died while commuting compared with 16 male workers and 2
female workers aged 65 years and over.
Figure 19 Commuter fatalities: number by age group and sex, Australia, 200304 to
200910 combined
160
Male
Commuter fatalities
Female
120
80
Number of Com
40
0
Less than 25 2534 3544 4554 5564 65 & over
Age group (years)
However when the number of workers in each age group is used to calculate a
fatality rate then it can be seen in Figure 20 that the 65 years and over age group
recorded the second highest fatality rate, 1.1 commuter deaths per 100000
workers, equal to the 2534 years age group. Commuters less than 25 years
old experienced the highest fatality rate 1.6 commuter deaths per 100000
workers.
Figure 20 Commuter fatalities: fatality rate by age group, Australia, 200304 to
200910 combined
1.8
1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0
Less than 25 2534 3544 4554 5564 65 & over
Age group (years)
3.2 Occupation
Table 6 shows that the largest number of commuter fatalities in 200910 occurred
among Technicians & trades workers with 18 deaths. This was followed by
Labourers with 16 deaths. The highest commuter fatality rate in 200910 was
recorded by Machinery operators & drivers, 1.6 commuter deaths per 100 000
workers, more than twice the overall rate of 0.7. Labourers recorded a commuter
fatality rate of 1.4. These two occupation groups have recorded the highest rates in
all seven years of the series.

Table 6 Commuter fatalities: number and fatality rates by occupation, Australia,
200304 to 200910
Occupation 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Number of commuter deaths
Technicians & trades workers 18 24 28 26 24 29 18
Labourers 22 22 35 22 23 31 16
Community & personal service 7 15 7 8 10 8 12
workers
Machinery operators & drivers 14 14 19 17 15 21 11
Professionals 15 12 12 6 14 16 9
Sales workers 2 7 8 10 4 7 4
Managers 8 12 9 9 3 5 4
Clerical & administrative workers 12 3 8 9 6 9 3
Unstated 1 1 1 0 1 0 2
Total 99 110 127 107 100 126 79
Technicians & trades workers 1.3 1.6 1.8 1.6 1.5 1.8 1.1
Labourers 2.0 2.0 3.2 1.9 2.0 2.7 1.4
Community & personal service 0.9 1.8 0.8 0.9 1.1 0.8 1.2
workers
Machinery operators & drivers 2.2 2.2 2.9 2.4 2.1 2.9 1.6
Professionals 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.3 0.6 0.7 0.4
Sales workers 0.2 0.7 0.8 1.0 0.4 0.7 0.4
Managers 0.7 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.2 0.4 0.3
Clerical & administrative workers 0.8 0.2 0.5 0.6 0.4 0.5 0.2
Total 1.0 1.1 1.3 1.0 0.9 1.2 0.7
At the lower level of the occupation classification, the largest number of commuting
deaths over the seven year period was among Crop farm workers(24). In addition,
there were 23 Sales assistants, 19 Welfare, recreation & community arts workers,
18 Commercial cleaners and 18 Truck drivers who were killed on a journey to or
from work.
3.3 Industry of employer

The highest number of deaths while commuting in 200910 occurred among
workers employed in the Manufacturing industry (11) followed by workers in
the Retail trade (9), Construction (8), and Public administration & safety (7)
industries. While the Manufacturing industry recorded the highest number of
Commuter fatalities in all seven years, the pattern in the other industries has
varied from year to year as seen in Table7.
In 200910, the highest commuter fatality rate, 2.3 commuter deaths per 100000
workers, was recorded by the Mining industry. The Mining industry has recorded
the highest fatality rate in all years except 200708 when it recorded the second
highest rate. Considerable variation in rates are shown for some industries due to
the small number of fatalities identified.
At the lower level of the industry classification, the largest number of Commuter
fatalities over the seven year period was among those working in Cafes &
restaurants of which 18 workers died while travelling to or from work. This was
followed by those working in Meat processing and Supermarket & grocery stores
both with 17 commuter deaths, and Hospitals and Coal mining both with 16. Most
of these industry sectors have workers working under shift arrangements that can
involve early mornings or late nights.

Table 7 Commuter fatalities: number and fatality rate by selected industry of
employer, Australia, 200304 to 200910
Industry of employer 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910

Number of commuter deaths
Manufacturing 15 13 27 22 17 31 11
Retail trade 6 11 10 7 8 10 9
Construction 9 9 19 8 12 15 8
Accommodation & food services 6 10 7 9 7 6 5
Health care & social assistance 12 6 1 6 3 7 5
Mining 2 3 4 4 3 6 4
Other services 1 3 2 5 4 4 3
Rental, hiring & real estate services 0 3 0 3 2 1 3
Education & training 5 3 5 2 7 4 1
Professional, scientific & technical services 9 2 5 1 4 6 0
Other and unknown industries(a) 5 10 9 5 7 4 10
Total 99 110 127 107 100 126 79
Manufacturing 1.5 1.2 2.6 2.1 1.6 3.0 1.1
Retail trade 0.5 1.0 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.8
Construction 1.2 1.1 2.2 0.8 1.2 1.5 0.8
Public administration & safety 0.5 2.0 1.0 0.7 0.6 1.1 1.0
Accommodation & food services 0.9 1.5 1.0 1.3 1.0 0.8 0.7
Agriculture, forestry & fishing 1.9 1.7 2.0 2.0 1.1 3.1 1.4
Health care & social assistance 1.3 0.6 0.1 0.6 0.3 0.6 0.4
Mining 2.1 2.9 3.1 3.0 2.1 3.6 2.3
Transport, postal & warehousing 1.5 1.0 1.6 2.5 0.9 0.7 0.7
Other services* 0.2 0.7 0.5 1.2 0.9 0.9 0.7
Rental, hiring & real estate services* 0.0 1.7 0.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 1.6
Administrative & support services 2.0 1.7 2.5 2.2 2.3 1.7 0.5
Wholesale trade 1.3 1.8 1.9 0.5 1.3 0.7 0.5
Education & training* 0.7 0.4 0.7 0.3 0.9 0.5 0.1
Professional, scientific & technical services* 1.4 0.3 0.7 0.1 0.5 0.8 0.0
All industries (a) 1.0 1.1 1.3 1.0 0.9 1.2 0.7
(a) includes Electricity, gas, water & waste services; Arts & recreation services; Rental, hiring & real estate services; Financial & insurance
services; and Information media & telecommunications
* Fatality rates for industries with less than 5 deaths in any year should be used with caution.
3.4 Type of vehicles involved

Over the seven years of the series all but 20 of the commuter deaths involved
a vehicle. The majority of the deaths (504 workers - 67%) were due to crashes
where the commuter was a driver or a passenger in a car. Of these car incidents
61% were single vehicle crashes, 20% involved another car and 13% involved a
truck.
In addition, 19% (139 workers) of commuters were riding motorcycles when
the incident occurred. Of these motorcycle incidents, 45% involved a car, 24%
involved a truck and a further 24% were single vehicle crashes.
Over the seven years there were 45 commuters killed while walking to or from
work: 26 were hit by a car, 8 were hit by a truck, 6 by a bus and 3 by a train.

4 Bystander fatalities
In 200910, 42 people died from injuries received due to another persons work
activity. This is the lowest number of deaths identified since the series began. The
highest number (59) was identified in 200607 of which 10 were killed when a
truck hit a train at Kerang.
Over the seven years of the series, 40% of the Bystanders killed were female. In
200910, 13 (31%) of the bystanders were female.
The number of Bystander deaths identified in any one year is almost certainly
an undercount. While the NCIS is likely to capture information on these
deaths, coronial records seldom provide sufficient information to determine
the connection between the fatal incident and someone elses work activity
particularly in vehicle incidents. These types of incidents are not compensated
through the workers compensation system and few are captured through the
notification system.
It should be noted that deaths in vehicle collisions only count as Bystander
fatalities where available documentation shows the driver of the work vehicle
to be at fault. Year on year fluctuations in Bystander fatalities may be due to
different identification procedures and should not be used to indicate a change in
the risk of work activity to Bystanders.

Table 8 shows that the highest number of bystanders in 200910 was among those
aged less than 15 years with the 15 deaths accounting for 36% of all bystander
deaths in that year. Nine of the 15 deaths were the result of a Vehicle incident.
Over the seven years, 29% of the bystanders were people in this age group while
the 65 years and over age group accounted for 17% and the other age groups
10% or 11%.
Table 8 Bystander fatalities: number by age group, Australia, 200304 to 200910
Age group 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
Under 15 years 15 12 11 25 17 10 15
1524 years 4 4 7 1 6 14 4
2534 years 6 8 5 4 6 6 5
3544 years 7 10 2 5 4 4 4
4554 years 4 5 2 12 8 3 3
5564 years 7 6 10 3 4 3 5
65 years and over 8 10 13 9 10 4 6
Total 51 55 50 59 55 44 42
4.2 Location of incident

In 200910, nearly two-thirds(66%) of Bystander fatalities involved a Traffic
incident. This proportion is the highest of all the years in the series. Over the seven
years, Traffic incident accounted for 56% of all Bystander fatalities.
In 200910 there were 6 Bystanders who died from drowning, 3 of these
occurred on agricultural properties 2 children drowned in a farm dam and 1 in
a cattle dip. Over the seven year period, 11% of Bystander fatalities occurred on
agricultural properties.

4.3 Mechanism of incident
Table 9 shows that over the seven years 53% of the Bystander fatalities were due
to a Vehicle incident. Of the 190 Vehicle incident deaths, 95 were caused by a
truck, 38 by a car and 10 by a bus. There were also 25 passengers in aircraft that
were killed.
Being hit by moving objects resulted in 19% of the Bystander fatalities with
vehicles responsible for all the deaths. Being hit by a truck resulted in the deaths
of 30 bystanders and being hit by a car a further 21.
Drowning incidents in a work environment resulted in the deaths of 34 people
over the seven years, 10% of all Bystander fatalities. Drowning in farm dams was
the largest group with 13 deaths, all of which involved children 8 years and under.
In addition, 9 people drowned after falling off watercraft and 7 drowned in public
swimming pools while under supervision.
Table 9 Bystander fatalities: number by mechanism of incident and breakdown
agency, Australia, 200304 to 200910 combined
Mechanism of incident/ Breakdown Number of deaths Percentage
agency
Vehicle incident 190 53%
Truck 95 27%
Car or other light vehicle 38 11%
Aircraft 25 7%
Bus 10 3%
Other 22 6%
Being hit by moving objects 67 19%
Truck 30 8%
Car or other light vehicle 21 6%
Drowning/immersion 34 10%
Drowned in farm dams 13 4%
Fell from working watercraft 9 3%
Drowned in swimming pools 7 2%
Falls 24 7%
Being hit by falling objects 16 4%
All other mechanisms 25 7%
Total Bystander deaths 356 100%

Explanatory Notes
1 Inclusions
This report covers fatalities due to work-related injuries and explicitly excludes
deaths attributable to disease and other natural causes. Among conditions
specifically included as injuries are those arising from poisonous plants and
animals, environmental conditions (e.g. frostbite), allergic reactions, and
embolisms. Heart attacks and strokes are regarded as natural causes, but where
available information shows that a work-related injury directly triggers a fatal
heart attack or stroke, the fatality is included.
Worker fatalities
All cases identified of persons who die of injuries sustained while they are
working are included in this report. For this purpose, working includes travelling
from one workplace to another. So a trades worker or professional killed driving
from one job or client to the next counts as a Worker fatality rather than a
Commuter fatality. Similarly, a worker killed in an air crash on their way to a
conference would be a Worker fatality.
The number of Worker fatalities shown in this report is considered reliable,
however, some deaths, particularly those related to traffic incidents, may be missed
due to the way these deaths are identified in the various sources. The Notified
Fatalities Collection (NFC) rarely records these deaths as they are generally
investigated by the police and the information in the National Coronial Information
System (NCIS) relies heavily on information collected by the police which may
not include sufficient information to identify the deceased as working at the time
of the incident.
Commuter fatalities
Fatal commuting incidents are only included in this publication where sufficient
information is available to determine with confidence that the injuries were
incurred while travelling to or from work or during a work break. Workers
compensation data provides the best means of identification of Commuter
fatalities but not all jurisdictions offer workers compensation while travelling to
or from work. The jurisdictions that offer workers compensation for commuting
injuries are New South Wales (with some restrictions); Queensland (with some
restrictions); the Northern Territory but only where the worker was on foot or
using a pushbike; the Australian Capital Territory; Comcare (up to March 2007),
and Seacare.
Jurisdictions that do not cover workers while commuting are Victoria, South
Australia (unless there was a real and substantial connection between the
employment and the incident), Western Australia and Tasmania.
While the NCIS would have records for all deaths involving vehicles, specific
details of the reasons for travel are seldom available, making it difficult to identify
a fatality decisively as a Commuter fatality from coronial records alone.
Commuter deaths are not generally notifiable under work health and safety
legislation.
These factors contribute to an undercount of Commuter deaths in this publication
and movements over time should be used with caution.

Bystander fatalities
There are many difficulties in identifying these deaths within the databases
used in this study Bystanders can not seek compensation through workers
compensation; notifications depend on the work health and safety legislation
of the jurisdiction; and they are only identified in the coronial database when
sufficiently detailed information on the circumstances of all parties to the
death is available. Most of the Bystander deaths in this report were identified
by examining NCIS records involving heavy or light commercial vehicles, so
Bystander deaths resulting from collisions involving cars and other light vehicles
engaged in work activity that NCIS does not code as work-related are unlikely to
have been identified. Estimates of Bystander fatalities in this collection should
therefore be regarded as being an undercount and movements over time used
with caution.
Deaths resulting from criminal activity

Persons sustaining fatal injuries at work or while commuting as a result of
someone elses criminal activity are included in this collection. Where the criminal
activity is incidental to legitimate work activity, for example, where a worker dies
of an injury sustained while under the influence of legal or illegal substances, the
fatality is included. Non-working persons fatally injured in an incident involving
criminals and law enforcement officers or security officers are included as
Bystanders.
Classification of fatalities
Persons who die of injuries sustained at work are included among Worker
fatalities even when the cause of the injury is another persons work activity.
Similarly, deaths due to injuries sustained while commuting are classified as
Commuter fatalities regardless of fault or cause.
2 Exclusions
Deaths due to natural causes

Natural causes include heart attacks, strokes and diseases.
Deaths due to complications of surgical and medical care

Although the death of patients who die as a result of medical negligence or
malpractice are in principle Bystander fatalities, deaths arising from such
iatrogenic injuries are specifically excluded from this collection.
Suicide
The scope of this project excludes deaths resulting from self-harm because it is
difficult to assess the extent of the connection between work and a decision to
take ones own life, even when detailed information is available.
Deaths of persons undertaking criminal activity

Work-related injury fatalities exclude deaths of persons fatally injured while
undertaking criminal activities, such as gaining illegal entry into a building or work
site.

3 Data sources
This study uses information from three datasets: the NDS, the NFC and the
NCIS. The individual case records from each of the datasets are compared so
that duplicates can be removed. Generally date of death and sex are used for
initial matching as this date is available for most cases. Date of birth is also used
to match records between the NDS and NCIS with age used from the NFC. Other
data items used for matching are industry and occupation of the deceased and
the coding of the incident in the NDS with narratives in the NFC and NCIS. Each
of these datasets has limitations, so all three datasets are needed to estimate the
total number of work-related deaths occurring each year.
The National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics (NDS)

The scope of the NDS is all accepted workers compensation claims made by
or for an employee (other than an employee of the defence forces). The NDS
is compiled annually by Safe Work Australia from data supplied by the state,
territory and Australian Government workers compensation authorities. The NDS
has consistent data from 200001 onwards.
The strengths of the NDS are that it:
usually codes the industry of employer accurately
is supported by several classification systems, including the Australian
and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), the
Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations
(ANZSCO) and the Safe Work Australia Type of Occurrence
Classification System (TOOCS), and
independently assesses work-relatedness.
The weaknesses of the NDS are that:
workers compensation is only available to employees, so the NDS does
not provide good coverage of deaths in industries where a significant
proportion is self-employed
some work-related injury fatalities do not appear in the NDS because
there are no dependants to lodge a claim
date of death is not available for all deaths although jurisdictions are
progressively introducing this data item
only jurisdictions where commuting injuries are compensable provide
data on Commuter fatalities
Bystander deaths are not compensable within the workers
compensation system in any jurisdiction and are therefore not included
in the NDS
narratives are not provided
coding of Mechanism, Agency, Breakdown agency and Occupation may
not be complete or accurate
data are not available until a year after the reference period
workers dieing overseas will be included
date of birth may not be accurate, and
names are not provided.

Notified Fatalities Collection (NFC)
Since 1 July 2003, Safe Work Australia has maintained a database of work-
related injury fatalities notified to work health and safety authorities in each
jurisdiction under their work health and safety legislation. There are thirteen work
health and safety jurisdictions in Australia that report to Safe Work Australia:
each of the eight states and territories; the Commonwealth (Comcare); the
mining sectors in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia; and the
National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority (NOPSA).
The strengths of the NFC are that:
it captures fatalities not covered by the NDS such as deaths to self-
employed, contract workers and bystanders
information is available within a few months of the incident
assessment of work-relatedness by work health and safety officers
names are supplied by some jurisdictions, and
it provides a brief narrative account of the circumstances of the fatality.
The weaknesses of the NFC are that:
data are only available from 200304 onwards
limited information is available at the time of notification
information on age is often inaccurate
there is limited coverage of transport-related deaths because these
deaths are notified to and investigated by the police, road traffic authority
or, in the case of plane crashes and marine deaths, by Commonwealth
agencies
commuting deaths are not within the scope of the collection, and
it tends to capture work-related deaths only when they occur shortly after
the injury.
National Coroners Information System (NCIS)

The NCIS was officially launched in July 2000 and is a national internet-based
data storage and retrieval system of coronial cases in Australia. The NCIS
holds information on all fatalities referred to a coroner in Australia. Each state
and territory in Australia has a licence agreement with the Victorian Institute
of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) permitting the transfer of coronial information for
storage and dissemination via the NCIS.
The strengths of the NCIS are that:
the scope of the collection includes all deaths reported to an Australian
coroner regardless of compensation status or work arrangement
when available, attachments to records, including police narratives
and coronial findings, may shed light on the causes and circumstances
surrounding a fatal incident
some information is available within a few months of incident, and
there is a work-relatedness assessment against standard criteria.
The weaknesses of the NCIS include:
not all work-related fatalities are correctly coded
industry information is more closely linked to the workplace than the
employer

it can be many years before the case is closed and all files loaded and
coded
access to records for open cases is restricted in Western Australia
crucial data items, including name, date of birth and date of death, as
well as documentation, may be missing in records for open cases and
even some closed cases, and
difficult to identify commuter and bystander deaths.
Identification of work-related deaths in the NCIS
As the work-related flag may not be finalised until the case is closed it is
necessary to examine all NCIS records that have the potential to be work-related.
In previous years, cases were extracted from NCIS if they met a set of criteria.
From 200910, all records for the period were extracted. This included those
where the date of death was in the 200910 period and also those where the
death had a date of notification up to 30 July 2010 to capture those where date
of death had yet to be entered. From this list, deaths were excluded that did not
match the scope criteria such as self-intentional injuries and deaths from natural
causes. The remaining cases were then more closely examined. In particular all
deaths that were coded as work-related or where the activity was coded as paid
work. Then all deaths that involved a heavy or light commercial vehicle, aircraft or
occurred at a farm, industrial or commercial workplace were examined.
As this process is commenced earlier than the previous extractions were taken,
updates on NCIS data are undertaken regularly to obtain additional coding
information as it became available. At the end of this process there were still
a number of fatalities where cause of death and other information was not yet
coded. These records will be monitored in future years to ensure all work-related
deaths are identified.
This perusal of all deaths provides greater confidence in the number of deaths
identified from the NCIS. Full extracts for prior years have also been examined
in this manner with only a few additional deaths identified. This new approach
has allowed for quicker matching with records in the other datasets but has not
increased the likelihood of identifying additional commuter or bystander deaths as
it still relies on the coding in the NCIS.
Other data sources

The media and accident investigation reports from the Australian Transport
Safety Bureau relating to plane crashes, train crashes and maritime incidents are
used to supplement information found in each of the datasets.
Dataset contribution
Figure 21 shows that the proportion of cases each dataset contributed to the total
number of work-related deaths in each year has remained relatively stable over
the time series. Nearly all deaths have been found in the NCIS with over half
identified in the NDS and about one-third identified in the NFC.
Of the 337 work-related injury fatalities identified in 200910, just 70(21%) were
identified in all three datasets. Another 115 (34%) were found only in NCIS and
2 could only be found in the NDS. All of the NFC cases were identified in other
datasets. When considering just Worker fatalities, 32% were found in all three
datasets.

Figure 21 All work-related fatalities: Dataset contribution, 200304 to 200910
100%
Proportion of fatalities 80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910
NCIS 100% 99% 100% 99% 97% 97% 99%
NDS 48% 54% 58% 58% 56% 56% 51%
NFC 32% 33% 32% 36% 33% 36% 36%
4 Coverage of Worker fatalities

Table 10 shows the proportion of working deaths in each industry captured by
each dataset in 200910. The NCIS captured all deaths in 16 of the 18 ANZSIC
industry divisions where deaths were identified. The NDS and NFC each only
captured all deaths in two industries in 200910.
Table 10 Proportion of Worker fatalities by dataset by Industry of employer,
Australia, 200910
Number of
Industry of employer NCIS NDS NFC Deaths
Transport, postal & warehousing 98% 59% 25% 51
Agriculture, forestry & fishing 100% 19% 52% 42
Construction 100% 67% 74% 39
Manufacturing 100% 79% 79% 24
Administrative & support services 100% 56% 67% 9
Retail trade 100% 25% 13% 8
Health care & social assistance 100% 83% 0% 6
Mining 100% 83% 83% 6
Wholesale trade 83% 100% 50% 6
Public administration & safety 100% 20% 60% 5
Rental, hiring & real estate services 100% 60% 40% 5
Education & training 100% 33% 33% 3
Electricity, gas, water and waste services 100% 67% 33% 3
Accommodation & food services 100% 50% 100% 2
Other services 100% 50% 100% 2
Information media & telecommunications 100% 50% 0% 2
Arts & recreation services 100% 0% 0% 2
Financial & insurance services 100% 100% 0% 1
Total 99% 54% 50% 216
In the case of the NDS the poor coverage is in part due to workers compensation
only being available to employees with many industries having substantial
numbers of self-employed workers. Table 11 shows that the Agriculture, forestry
and fishing and Construction industries have the lowest percentages of workers
who are employees, 51% and 71% respectively. The NDS captured just 19% and
67% of all work-related deaths in these industries respectively.

The NDS poorly captured deaths in the Retail trade industry with only 2 of the
8 deaths having workers compensation claims associated with them. Many
of the non-claimed deaths involved vehicle incidents and it is possible that
compensation was sought through the Compulsory Third Party insurance
system. Similarly only 1 of the 5 deaths in the Public administration & safety
industry were captured in the NDS. One of these deaths involved a person in the
defence force who are not included in the NDS.
Table 11 Proportion of workers who were Employees by industry of employer,
Australia, 200910
Industry of employer Percentage employees
Public Administration and Safety 99%
Mining 99%
Electricity, Gas, Water and Waste Services 97%
Financial and Insurance Services 96%
Education and Training 95%
Health Care and Social Assistance 94%
Information Media and Telecommunications 94%
Manufacturing 93%
Accommodation and Food Services 93%
Wholesale Trade 93%
Retail Trade 92%
Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services 88%
Transport, Postal and Warehousing 86%
Professional, Scientific and Technical Services 84%
Arts and Recreation Services 82%
Other Services 80%
Administrative and Support Services 79%
Construction 71%
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing 51%
5 Calculation of fatality rates

Fatality rates are calculated as the number of deaths divided by the number of
workers in the reference period. Employment figures from ABS quarterly Labour
force data are used in calculating fatality rates in this publication. The number
of workers is derived from the average of all persons employed over the four
quarters of the financial year for each sex, age group, industry, occupation, or
state or territory.
Because work-related injury fatalities of Australian Defence Force (ADF)
personnel within Australia are in scope of this report, worker estimates for the
Public administration & safety industry division and the total of all industries,
as well as each sex and state or territory are supplemented with the average
of levels of ADF permanent members reported in the Department of Defence
Annual Report.
Worker fatalities include volunteers who cannot be accounted for in the worker
estimates. This study has identified 15 workers in the seven years who were
volunteering their labour when they were killed. Similarly the worker estimates do
not include children under 15. Across the seven years, 3 workers under the age
of 15 years have been killed. The inclusion of these deaths without increasing the
worker estimates does not impact on the fatality rates in this publication.

Glossary
Bystander fatality The death of a person who dies as a result of injuries
sustained as a result of another persons work activity and
who was not engaged in work activity of their own or travelling
to or from their own workplace at the time of the injury.
A traffic incident death is only classified as a Bystander fatality
when attributable to someone elses work activity. Typically,
this means the driver of a work vehicle is at fault. Cases
where fault could not be determined with sufficient confidence
were excluded.
Commuter fatality The death of a person who dies as a result of injuries

sustained while travelling to or from work, including those
whose injury results from anothers work activity.
Employed The denominators used in calculating fatality rates in this

report are based on ABS estimates of Employed persons, as
defined in Labour force, Australia (ABS cat no 6202.0). This
population includes Employees, who work for an employer;
self employed persons, whether they employ others or not;
and those who work without pay for a family business or farm.
It excludes persons whose only work is voluntary.
Employee A person who works for a public or private employer and
receives remuneration in wages, salary, a retainer fee from
their employer while working on a commission basis, tips,
piece-rates, or payment in kind; or a person who operates
his or her own incorporated enterprise with or without hiring
employees.
Fatality rate The number killed as a result of work-related injury expressed

as a per-capita rate against the population at risk of work-
related injury. In this report the rate is expressed as the
number of deaths per 100 000 Employed persons: for brevity
this is usually expressed as deaths per 100 000 workers.
See Paragraph 5 of the Explanatory notes for further details.
Industry A grouping of businesses which carry out similar economic

activities. Fatalities data in this publication have been coded
to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial
Classification (ANZSIC) 2006 (ABS cat. no. 1292.0) and
unless specified are shown at the industry division level.
Injury A condition coded to External Causes of morbidity and

mortality and Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences
of external causes in the International Statistical Classification
of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision,
Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM).
Job A set of tasks designed to be performed by one person for an
employer (including self-employment) in return for payment or
profit.

Location of incident The location at which the fatal injury occurred. Where this
is an identifiable workplace, the location is coded to the
appropriate category of ANZSIC 2006. In many cases injuries
occur in public places and are coded as such.
Mechanism of The action, exposure or event which best describes the
incident circumstances that resulted in the most serious injury.
Occupation A set of jobs with similar sets of tasks. Fatalities data in this
publication have been coded to the Australian and New
Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO)
(ABS cat. no. 1220.0) First edition and unless specified are
shown at the major group level.
Traffic incident A collision on a public road between any vehicle or self-
propelled plant and anything else, including a pedestrian.
Incidents involving vehicles at worksites or on private roads
are excluded.
Type of occurrence A suite of four classifications to code the way an injury
classification system occurred, comprising:
(TOOCS) the Nature of injury/disease classification
the Bodily location of injury/disease classification
the Mechanism of incident classification, and
the Agency of injury/disease classification.
Version 3.1 is used for coding in this report.
Worker fatality The death of a person who dies as a result of injuries
sustained while at work, including those whose injury results
from anothers work activity.

Inquires
For further information regarding the contents ofthis publication contact:
The Data & Analysis Section
Safe Work Australia
(02) 6121 9256

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WORK-RELATED TRAUMATIC

Sex and age

Working with trucks

WORK-RELATED TRAUMATIC INJURY FATALITIES, AUSTRALIA 200910 ... 1

Deaths per 100 000 workers

2.1 Characteristics by sex

WORK-RELATED TRAUMATIC INJURY FATALITIES, AUSTRALIA 200910 ... 3

4 ... SAFE WORK AUSTRALIA

WORK-RELATED TRAUMATIC INJURY FATALITIES, AUSTRALIA 200910 ... 5

Technicians & trades workers

Community & personal service workers

Clerical & administrative workers

0% 10% 20% 30%

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Table 3 shows that the highest fatality ratesProportion of working fatalities

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In 200910, Vehicle incident deaths accounted for 73 of the 77 Traffic incident

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Falls from a height

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Being hit by falling objects claimed the lives of 18 workers in 200910. In 4 of

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Agriculture, forestry & fishing

Electricity, gas, water and waste services

Administrative & support services

Mining Truck driver

Rental, hiring & real estate services Worker on foot

Public administration & safety

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Figure 16 shows that two-thirds of incidents on farms that resulted in a death

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Deaths per 100 000 workers

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Age group (years)

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3.3 Industry of employer

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Industry of employer 200304 200405 200506 200607 200708 200809 200910

3.4 Type of vehicles involved

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4.1 Characteristics by age group

4.2 Location of incident

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Deaths resulting from criminal activity

Deaths due to natural causes

Deaths due to complications of surgical and medical care

Deaths of persons undertaking criminal activity

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The National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics (NDS)

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National Coroners Information System (NCIS)

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Other data sources

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